Calibration Stickers on instruments are NOT required!

[isodog]

Are you going to continue to attach stickers to gages? This is no longer required,

 

[Marc]

I'm doing some work for Ford in Sharonville. Not 1 gage has a cal sticker - they are registered to ISO9001:1994/QS-9000. Any comments?

 

[Tom Goetzinger]

What do their procedures say? I don't believe that the standard ever required calibration stickers on all calibrated gages. It just requires a method of identifying which gages are calibrated, so that only those are used when product quality is affected. Calibration stickers are a commonly accepted method of doing that, and maybe the easiest, but certainly not the only.

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Tom Goetzinger

 

[isodog]

You are correct!

Dave

 

[ALM]

Originally posted by Tom Goetzinger:
What do their procedures say? I don't believe that the standard ever required calibration stickers on all calibrated gages. It just requires a method of identifying which gages are calibrated, so that only those are used when product quality is affected.

Though I have fought with auditors in the past over this... this year we finally relented and actually labeled our gages, etc... that are NOT used for inspection/test results as "not for calibration. We have always "identified" our inspection and testing gauges with a sticker... and specified that "only those with the appropriate calibration stickers and that are on the calibration list... may be used to make quality decisions... blah, blah, blah..."

We were CONSTANTLY busted for not labeling everything else "not for calibration." (This, from a reputable auditor at a well-know registrar... BSI)

Just my $.05

ALM

[This message has been edited by ALM (edited 13 June 2000).]

 

[Marc]

We were CONSTANTLY busted for not labeling everything else "not for calibration."

This has been my experience.

 

[Tom Goetzinger]

Have you tried including in your procedures the statement that unless identified as calibrated, all gages are assumed to be for reference use only?
I believe that is the key to not labeling all gages.
"Identified" could mean bearing calibration stickers, or marked in some other way, but identifiable to a specific instrument on the calibrated instrument list.

[This message has been edited by Tom Goetzinger (edited 13 June 2000).]

 

[Marc]

Originally posted by Tom Goetzinger:
Have you tried including in your procedures the statement that unless identified as calibrated, all gages are assumed to be for reference use only?

As I stated above, I have run into the 'sticker everything' mentality. For some years I have used the procedure vehicle to avoid labeling everything. It does work, but there are some idiot auditors who don't like to buy it. You gotta ram it down their throats.

 

[Tom Goetzinger]

I was able to convince our auditor that it did not make good business sense to label all gages. Because this is true in our environment, and our auditor is a reasonable, experienced individual, I did not have to ram it down his throat.

 

[Marc]

Originally posted by Tom Goetzinger:
Because this is true in our environment, and our auditor is a reasonable, experienced individual, I did not have to ram it down his throat.

Consider yourself lucky.